as for crimea, the deputy prime minister said that peninsula is not lost, there is still time for russia to reverse course. >> more than 500 people have been sentenced to the death penalty in egypt in relation to violent riots in august that left several killed. >> the sentence is part of a crackdown on islamists that started after the removed of president mohamed morsi and have seen thoughts arrested. the grand mufti must approve the sentence and there is still time for appeals. >> investigators are still racing against the clock to find any trace of the missing airliner. and we will show you why. >> also, the bottom of the indian ocean not exactly smooth.

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welcome back. you are watching cnn newsroom. i'm rosemary church. and i'm john vause. this is the very latest on malaysian airlines flight 370. the top executives of malaysian airlines held a news conference just a short time ago. they expressed sorrow for the victims of the missing flight. the airline has offered family members $5,000 for each passenger on board the flight. >> strong winds and heavy rains grounded search flights on monday. search flights will probably not resume for at least another 24 hours. investigators are desperate to find the flight data and cockpit voice recorders from that missing malaysia airlines jet. >> they are crucial to understanding what happened, when and why and as ed shows us,

they are now in a race against time. >> the race is intensifying to recover the clues before it's too late. >> things are getting compromised as the clock ticks here. there are components that can corrode. so this could be disappearing. the clock is again running against them. >> reporter: aviation expert matthew robinson spent 20 years investigating accidents for the marine corps. he said the top priority must be finding the data recorder. >> torpedo-like device will such for the data recorder. finding it is just the beginning. >> grab every single piece of this aircraft. every piece is going to tell its own little tale. once you can put those little tales together it, will give you

the big picture and help draw conclusion as to what happened. >> reporter: if and when pieces are recovered, investigators will start piecing it together. this was down in the flight of 800 in the late 90s. many crucial parts of an aircraft, like engine components made of magnesium. one expert told us in salt water magnesium can dissolve like an alka seltzer tablet and important clues could be lost forever. there's also the grim task of recovering bodies of passengers. the bodies could show signs of smoke inhalation, for example. experts say all of this work could take months, if not years. family members of the passengers continue to push for answers. >> i want to see something from the seas. i don't know why i just want to see some debris off the aircraft and the black box to know what

exactly happened because there are too many unanswered questions. >> reporter: for now the waiting continues for the families, desperate for clues to emerge from the death penalties of these ocean waters. ed lavandera, cnn. >> of course initially, the big question north or south. everyone involved in the search was trying to figure out 370's direction once it was determined the plane continued to fly for hours. >> what is search is coming down to is basic mathematic detective work. if you were to shout out to a canyon wall, it would take a certain amount of time for the oak to co-- echo to come back. that is how they got got this

arc as to where this plane might be. it is every hour sending a ping or electronic handshakedown to see where this plane is. if it's closer, it's going to be in one of the tighter rings. by doing this, they were able to establish this idea that the plane moved through the rings in this fashion. why do they think it didn't go to the north? well, there's a lot of radar up there in different cities and towns and they probably would have seen it up there. but also, the shape of the earth is not exactly round. you great slightly different mathematical equation if you go that way as compared to the south. but just to make sure, they checked this equation they came up with against existing planes, planes that they knew were out there and they specifically knew the location of. it's sort of like if you did a test problem in arithmetic and

you had the answers for the examples, then you get to the actual problem where they don't have the answer. the one they don't have the answer to is where was the malaysian air flight. then they ran this equation and said it's right there, somewhere in that region. that is what has allowed them to cut a gigantic search area down into something much more manageable and much more promising. >> it was unprecedented and had never been done before, but now they have what they believe to be the definitive area. but the questions remain as to what actually happened on board that plane. analysts are looking at every possible explanation. one of those explanations actually revolves around something in the cargo hold, lithium batteries. >> the ceo of malaysian airlines said the plane was hauling 200 kilograms of those batteries but says they were packed properly. randy kaye looks at the dangers they can cause when they're not. >> reporter: at 30,000 feet,

this laptop may be enough to bring down a jumbo jet. watch closely. it's about to catch fire. >> oh, my god! >> inside is a lithium battery. when it gets too hot, it ignites, just like this faa training video demonstrates. in the last two decades or so, the faa reports more than 140 incidents involving batteries in cargo or baggage. in most cases batteries were undeclared. baggage handlers noticed luggage on fire or hot to the touch. on board, even laptops, even flashlights started to smoke. even they they can cause this, they are still allowed in electronics in the passenger cabin. a limited amount of batteries are still allowed to be checked if they are packaged properly.

a short circuit can happen by chance. say it comes into contact with keys or coins or jewelry. that can create a pass for the electricity. it creates extreme heat, leading to sparks and fire. lithium battery can burn so hot it can melt a plane. >> you just can't pull off to the side of a road and hot out like you can in a car. >> reporter: in 2006, fire forced a ups plane to make an emergency landing in philadelphia. investigators found electronics containing lithium batteries in the cargo. the pilot survived. and this is what was left of a ups plane after it crashed in dubai in 2010. the boeing 747 was carrying 80,000 to 90,000 lithium batteries.

a chain reaction fire killed the cockpit with smoke. both pilots died. following the ups crash in 2010, the faa wanted to tighten the rules on battery shipments in cargo planes, too, even classify them as dangerous goods. industry groups and lobbyists fought back hard. the final compromise approved by congress in 2012 blocked proposed tougher federal rules on transsporting lithium batteries on planes. >> so far no part of the plane mass been recovered, no one has made a confirmed sighting. that could take days, or weeks or longer. once the debris is found, then comes the really hard part, searching for clues in an area

where -- a short time ago i spoke with an ocean engineering consultant, who played a lead role in finding the air france wreckage. >> reporter: let's start with the basics here. when do they start this search and where do they start this search at the bottom of the ocean? >> that's a great question and it's kind of difficult to answer. really the search for looking for underwater doesn't really begin until, you nope, they can accurately and positively identify debris on the surface. and once they do that and start to pick up that debris on the surface and map out where they're getting it day by day and really start to look at the drift and start to do a reverse drift analysis, that's going to

be where they map out and pick up all this debris on the surface. now it's been 17 days, 18 days. how did that debris move with the wind, the currents, the waves? >> you managed to work it out when it came to the air france flight. you put together was an incredibly detailed essentially map where all of the debris was at the bottom of the ocean. it went on and on and on. do you think they'll ever get to the point of being able to do something similar for flight 370? >> you know, i hope so. i do think we'll get to that point. once we find the debris, we can make some incredible maps with great detail. in the air france we did huge mosaic swaths and just thing it would be degree. and we're able to identify a

which proved. >> is it possible to get a more difficult part of the world to conduct a search like this. >> >> that's a rahal challenging area. there's a ridge out by that area. it's very remote and the weather there is really challenging. like they called off the search for tomorrow. s they just going to be a problem throughout this whole operation. it's going to be a challenge to overcome. but when there's rough days, there's calm days. you have to optimize those days. >> any idea how long this search will take? it took two years on the air france flight. >> i think it's going to take a

long time to sort through all the information as it comes in. once we find the surface debris and start the search, it's going to be a big effort, a huge effort. >> and i did ask him a couple of times would he put a time frame on it. just not willing to go there at this stage. >> of course you have to shrink a search design. >> of course, it all depends on finding debris. >> but fen that's difficult because it's moving. it's difficult to to actually target it. i want to look at the search zone weather because, as we said, they've put on hold the search. also, there's a nor'easter for the u.s. let go back to are meteorologist. >> in in region, the weather is going to be very dangerous for anyone if they were going to go out here. you take a look. the we know the ceiling across this region, this photograph snapped in the past 24 hours as

the orion aircraft crew are beginning to return back toward perth the ceiling visibility is down to 200 feet at times and the apc-3 is desliend signed to throw as low as 300 feet above the water's surface. of course we know the wave heights 13 plus feet eye. the aircraft even having to get closer to the water makes it danger. i do believe in about 24 hours from right now we begin to see seem conditions so thursday may be questionable where the weather may cooperate.

>> quickly take you out to the northeastern u.s. at this point it's a full-blown nor'easter but it's offshore. boston, new york city and washington d.c. are the major cities in the northeast only get a couple of inches of snow out of this in what has been a very miserable winter across portion of the northeastern u.s. >> it's been a difficult search for survivors after a weekend landslide in the u.s. state of washington. >> and the number of those unaccounted for has gone way up. we'll have the latest on the rescue effort next. every day of the week.

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...or if you have kidney problems, especially if you take certain medicines. tell your doctors about all medicines you take. pradaxa side effects include indigestion, stomach pain, upset, or burning. if you or someone you love has afib not caused by a heart valve problem... ...ask your doctor about reducing the risk of stroke with pradaxa. here is the latest on malaysia airlines flight 370. senior executives have expressed sympathy but not a lot of answers at a news conference. >> the search for the missing plane has been suspended for at least the next day. australia's defense minister says strong winds and rough seas make the efforts too dangerous. >> and we'll have more on the

airline in a moment. for now let's look at some other stories in the news. >> rescuers are still hoping to find survivors in a mudslide. this is an area north of seat e seattle. >> the number dead is 114 with the number of missing 176. >> basically it could be a family that put up a wb sieb si it could be a twitter query or a vague description, something like "haven't seen paul at that house where he lived." investigators are looking into all of those reports, trying to compile them and narrow them down. we initially started with over a dozen. that went up to 108.

now at 176, the home was to see that number decline. again, we are seeing the number rise. investigators say again that are doing everything they can to bring all of those reports together to find people, to have people accounted for and hopefully and quickly reduce that number. >> george, obviously this is a dangerous thing for rescue workers. are they able to work in the darkness? >> we learned a little bit more about what it's like to be out there. we understand that it took some of these firefighters, some of the rescuers, it took them five minutes to go 50 or 60 feet. just a short distance. and that's because it's so muddy. and in many places the land is very unstable. we know that they had a very robust plan this morning to go out with machines to move the mud. they wanted to have people on the ground to probe with electronic equipment, to look for people in the mud. they had to stop around midday. but then they resumed that search. they had to stop because the land was very unstable.

>> u.s. president barack obama has issued an emergency declaration for washington state and ordered federal aid to help in the rescue and recovery effort. >> well, canadian health officials are trying to determine if a critically ill man has the ebola virus. the man is hospitalized and isolated in a western city. he had been to liberia in africa where five people have died of suspected ebola. an outbreak in neighboring guinea has killed at least nine people. symptoms include diarrhea, vomiting and fever. >> the murder trial of oscar pistorius resumes in a few hours in south africa. text messages between pistorius and reeva steenkamp took center sage on monday. in one message, steenkamp told pistorius she was afraid of him

and she said she was tired of hough he picked on her incessantly. >> a federal investigator in the u.s. says he's never seen a train crash like this before. this eight-car metro car failed to stop at the end of its line, jumped the tracks and began climbing an escalator at chicago's o'hare international airport. the crash injured 32 people but none of them seriously. investigators plan to talk to the train's operator to try to figure out what actually caused the break. >> when we come back, we will have more on malaysia airlines flight 370. >> a close look at some of the 239 people who boarded flight 370.

welcome back to our coverage. the passengers came from all around the world and from all walks of life. they were artists, executives,

grandparents and children. >> anderson cooper takes a closer look now at some of the people who boarded flight 370. >> paul weeks is a husband and father of two. he was on his way to start a new job in mongolia, his dream job. before he left his home in australia, he gave his wedding ring and watch with his wife dani danica. >> he said i'm going to leave my wedding ring and watch here. he said should anything happen to me, i want the wedding ring to go to the first son and the watch to the second. i said don't be stupid, just come back and i'll give it it back to you. >> this couple was on vacation and on their way home to their two young sons in beijing. >> as parents nothing was more important to them than those kids. everything they did was surrounding those kids. you go to their house and it was covered with pictures of their

boys. >> 30-year-old lee was on her way home to her 5-year-old daughter. she works for a semiconductor company in texas and was on board with five of her colleagues. >> this couple was looking forward to becoming first-time grandparents. they were beginning a trip with their good friends the laddens. >> this group of artists in china were in malaysia to display their work. the loved ones of these passengers have waited with prayers and with hope. strangers, mostly children, have left pictures at the airport in malaysia. this within reaone reads "we mi love you."

this one simply says "please come back." >> so stressful and so heart breaking for all the loved ones of those passengers. >> and it was brutal the way they got the news in the text messages. >> and the timing. >> and we heard officials from the malaysian airlines saying it was a sad day. >> and they explained why they sent the text. >> i'm rosemary church. >> i'm john vause. stay with us. so you can grow grass anywhere! looking good, lad! man: thanks, scott. ez seed really works! so, how come haggis is so well behaved? scott: 'cause he's a scotty. man: oh. scott: get scotts ez seed. it's guaranteed. seed your lawn. seed it!

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